But perhaps you’re thinking, big deal – we’re coming up on summertime – and these terrible delays only happen in the winter, right?

Trapped on the Tarmac in 2007

Maybe you’re remembering that horrendous Valentine’s Day weekend of three years ago, when icy weather grounded planes at JFK but JetBlue nevertheless kept hundreds of passengers in planes on the tarmac for as long as eight, nine and even ten hours. Eventually, JetBlue admitted this was “a debacle” (though to its credit, the airline soon rebounded to the extent that JetBlue is again a huge favorite with fliers).

Again, that was a winter weather incident – and bad weather is the overwhelming factor in such situations, responsible for 70% of all airline delays. But did you know summer weather can be just as bad – or worse?

Summer Weather: Worse than Winter

This is from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) website:

“The situation is worse during the summer: unlike winter storms, which take time to develop and move slowly, summer storms can form quickly, stretch for hundreds of miles and travel rapidly over large portions of the country, grounding flights and sending chain reaction delays throughout the nation’s airspace system.” – FAA fact sheet

Watch for big storms to start rolling in any time, the kind that last for two or three hours (something you see a lot of in the Dallas area). And watch for preemptive cancelations by the airlines. The real challenge, unfortunately, will be where to put all the people displaced by the canceled flights – because airlines have been cutting capacity.